At Pearl Harbor, US response to raid is acclaimed

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — While smoke still billowed from the torpedoed ruins of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, Thomas Griffin's B-25 group took off from its Oregon base to search for Japanese ships or submarines along the West Coast.

They didn't find any, but four months later the group flew from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and attacked Tokyo. The raid inflicted little damage but boosted U.S. morale and embarrassed the Japanese, who launched the ill-fated attack on Midway Island six weeks later, recalled Griffin, a retired Army Air Corps major from Green Township, outside Cincinnati.

The U.S. military "took Japan entirely by surprise," said Griffin, a keynote speaker at a ceremony Sunday commemorating the 67th anniversary of the Japanese raid that marked America's entry into World War II. He was joined by more than 2,000 World War II veterans and other observers.

Usually, the commemoration focuses on the attack on the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor and several other installations on Oahu. But Sunday's remembrance centered more on the months following the raid and on an American response that helped defeat the Japanese and render the U.S. a military superpower.

At 7:55 a.m., the moment on a Sunday morning in 1941 when hundreds of Japanese planes began raining bombs and torpedoes onto Oahu's U.S. military ships and planes, onlookers across from the sunken USS Arizona went silent.

"It was an impossible beginning," Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in his address. "Yet, look at us today." He noted that Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard recently celebrated 100 years of service and still maintains the far-reaching U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Underscoring how far Americans and Japanese have come since Dec. 7, 1941, President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago on Sunday introduced retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, a Japanese American born in Hawaii a year after the attack, as his nominee to head the Veterans Affairs Department.

Sunday's commemoration featured a performance by the U.S. Pacific Fleet Band, morning colors, a Hawaiian blessing, a rifle salute by the U.S. Marine Corps and a recognition of those who survived the attack.

After the moment of silence observing the beginning of the attack, the destroyer USS Chung-Hoon rendered honors to the Arizona, which still lies in the harbor with its dead.

Nearly 2,400 Americans were killed and almost 1,180 injured when Japanese fighters bombed and sank 12 naval vessels and heavily damaged nine others.

The Arizona, which sank in less than nine minutes after an armor-piercing bomb breached its deck and exploded in the ship's ammunition magazine, lost 1,177 sailors and Marines. About 340 of its crew members survived.

Other major installations on Oahu, such as Wheeler Field and Kaneohe Naval Air Station, also were attacked.

This year's ceremony came weeks after construction began on a new visitor's center for the USS Arizona Memorial. The existing center, built 28 years ago on reclaimed land, is sinking. Officials have said it will be unusable in a few years.

The event was held a half-mile away at Kilo Pier of Naval Station Pearl Harbor, the planned site for next year's commemoration, as well. The new visitor's center is scheduled to open Dec. 7, 2010.

Comments

[Rule Of Law]

12:20 PM on 12/08/2008

Why wouldn't Bush choose to focus on the response rather than the lead up to it? Whether FDR or his cabinet "knew" that the attack would occur, is irrelevant­. They had done everything that they could to force Japan's hand, and knew for certain, that at some point Japan would strike to protect their own dwindling resources in the Pacific. Then, FDR would have his reason to enter the war on the side of England against Hitler, which was his primary goal.

That Bush wants this commemorat­ion to be about the reaction, rather than the lies that lead up to it, only serves to underscore his own devious and malign approach to getting the US to invade Iraq!

[Nooneyouknow]

12:37 AM on 12/08/2008

To everybody who's convinced Roosevelt didn't know, I recommend you have a look at this:

http://wha­treallyhap­pened.com/­WRHARTICLE­S/pearl/www.geocit­ies.com/Pe­ntagon/631­5/pearl.ht­ml

There are tons of facts that prove not only that Roosevelt knew, but he was setting up the attack to succeed.
A little OT, but similarly, there are many facts that prove that the British set up the attack on the Lusitania to bring the U.S. into WW1. Winston Churchill was instrument­al in the plot and virtually admitted it after the war.
The Brits made sure German spies saw that the Lusitania was being loaded with munitions. The Imperial German government tried to advertise the risk to American travelers in papers across the country, but the articles were spiked by President Wilson. Why? Because there was so much money to be made in the war. War profiteeri­ng by people who had the power to control government­. Just as in WW2 and Iraq. Follow the money and you find the truth.

[Durango]

11:43 AM on 12/08/2008

I read tha book about Churchill and the Lusitania. It was FICTION!

You need to go back and do some research.

The ads the Gemans put in the newspapers were not spiked. They ran next to the adds for the Lusitania. very famous fact.

The ship embarked in New York. how did the Brits allow German spies to see it loaded with ammo?

And if you think Churchill was cynical enough to sacrifice 1,200 civilian men women and children.

You need to read much, much more about Churchill.

[BlackWidowPilot]

01:38 PM on 12/08/2008

Actually, we now now that there was indeed ammunition loaded on the Lusitania. Whether or not *Churchill­* Himself knew about it is another matter, however...

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[curocat]

10:37 PM on 12/07/2008

What was missing from the report was: Hickam Field ( Army Air corp.) which is next door to Pearl Harbor, and Schofield Barracks ( Army Post), they too got hit... The movie " Tora Tora Tora" the chow hall that got hit with the men inside was at HIckam...

[leeskyblue]

10:34 PM on 12/07/2008

We were left with virtually no defense of our West Coast for many months. We were not overrun because the Japanese chose to focus on Asia rather than invade us.
Allowing our fleet to be destroyed so we could go to war sounds something like getting a military discharge by shooting yourself in the scrotum.

[bioluminescence]

11:21 PM on 12/07/2008

Well said.

[randyjet]

11:45 PM on 12/07/2008

Given how stupid most of the profession­al officers were, it would seem like a GOOD idea to THEM! We were lucky that some very sharp guys stayed in the military during the hard times of the 20-30s. They could not admit that they were stupid and incompeten­t, so it MUST be that they were betrayed. Hell if FDR had given them the time and place for the Japanese attack, they would have lost even worse than what they did. McArhtur managed to lose his whole air force when he HAD warning and Pearl Harbor had already been attacked! That was NOT one of his finer moments.

[sonofsamphm1c]

10:21 PM on 12/07/2008

Setting rationalit­y aside for a moment, say FDR knew that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked on December 7, 1941.

Why would it be necessary to allow his own men to remain unaware and be slaughtere­d? Do people actually believe that had FDR notified his commanders and allowed them to defend against the attack, that Americans would have disapprove­d of going to war against the country that attacked Pearl Harbor?

It's prepostero­us to think that. Even if the defenders of Pearl had shot down every Japanese plane and sunk every Japanese ship, Americans, the majority of whom fully supported FDR's aggressive foreign policies, would have demanded a declaratio­n of war with Japan.

It was a surprise attack. Only the Japanese knew that Pearl Harbor was to be attacked on December 7, 1941.

[Nooneyouknow]

12:22 AM on 12/08/2008

Roosevelt set it up that way for the same reason that the 9/11 plot wasn't stopped by arresting the hijackers or shooting down (all) the airliners: the worse the damage, the louder the outcry and the greater the anger, thus more political capital to use for going to war.

[Durango]

11:26 AM on 12/08/2008

Right, an attack on Pearl Harbor would have had the same effect WITHOUT the Battleship­s lined up on Battleship Row.

To knowingly sacrifice your Battleship­s in what was already the biggest war in history?

[Lisette]

09:30 PM on 12/07/2008

Oh please FDR knew Pearl was going to be attacked.
how else to get America into the War
So, not only did he know about it he recieved a Telegram too!
Please do not rewrite history!

[harrymellon]

08:53 PM on 12/07/2008

He mentions Pearl Harbor in which it has been repeatedly proven that FDR knew we were under attack days before it occurred. In fact, over objections from top military brass he based the naval fleet in HW instead of CA so it could easily be overrun. Remember, FDR promised over and over again that he would NEVER allow us to enter the European war during 1940 election while simultaneo­usly promising Britain the he would enter the war during secret communicat­ions. Do not let another false flag operation like this, 911, Gulf of Tonkin etc be carried out by Obama. Im an independen­t/democrat but I know full well that dems have got us in many wars too.

[randyjet]

09:24 PM on 12/07/2008

This is silly. I see you need to read some history. FDR did NOT know the Japanese would attack at Pearl. He moved the fleet to Hawaii to send a message to Japan that we were concerned about their actions in China. The ONLY reason the profession­al officers did not like it was that they did NOT want to be inconvenie­nced by having to move. It was a good tactical move as we all can see since the fleet is STILL THERE after ALL these years and during WWII too! I guess a smart FDR would have withdrawn the fleet back to CA so that they could not be overrun again? Please stay out of the Democratic Party we have enough people like you.

[curocat]

10:41 PM on 12/07/2008

You should check out www; " The New Pearl Harbor."

[randyjet]

08:42 PM on 12/07/2008

The FACT is that ALL commands were given TWO war warnings before Pearl Harbor. The fact is that the senior profession­al military was incompeten­t, and so their only defense was that they were "betrayed" by Washington­. That is where all this stuff about FDR and DC knowing that Pearl would be attacked is coming from. It is NOT the job of headquarte­rs to TELL commanders where to put their troops in case of attack. It is assumed that they have competence to do that on their own. ALL commands had ample warning that we would be at war with Japan. It was NOT the job of the Pentagon to say from which direction it would come. It would be NICE if they could do so, but not needed.

As for nobody thinking that it would be possible for such an attack, that is an outright lie as well. GEn.Mitche­ll wrote a BOOK on such an attack by Japan on Pearl. The Brits in 1940 used BIPLANES to destroy the Italian fleet at Taranto. Only incompeten­ts would NOT know such things. It is THEIR JOB to know such stuff.

[JGatsby]

08:59 PM on 12/07/2008

I agree with some of what you said. The general and admiral in charge of Pearl Harbor were derelict in their duty. Unlike George Bush, one of the first things FDR did after the attack was to investigat­e how it happened and to discipline those responsibl­e. However, one thing you neglected was the genius of the Japanese command in plotting and executing the attack. There were many factors that made an attack on Pearl Harbor very unlikely. To begin with the main weapon for Japanese planes against ships was their highly effective torpedo. However, those torpedos did not work in shallow waters such as Pearl Harbor. The japanese worked out an ingenious adaptation where they added extra wooden fins to the torpedos so they would not fall so deep and crash on the ocean floor when dropped. I think there is a bit of racism in the revisionis­t history here. We fail to give the Japanese their due credit for the innovative thinking and flawless execution. There was blame on the American side but its not that the commanders were moronic incompeten­ts.

[randyjet]

09:17 PM on 12/07/2008

You forget that the Japanese copied what the Brits did at Taranto in 1940 when they desrtoyed the Italian fleet in a shallow harbor too. I doubt the Brits let the Japanese know how to modify the torpedoes so that they would work.

The senior profession­al military officers were the ones who insisted that they were "betrayed" rather than admitting that they were boobs who had no idea of what they were doing. The GOP when they controlled Congress passed a resolution restoring the rank and reputation of Kimmel. Incompeten­ts stick together and cover for each other.

[BlackWidowPilot]

12:24 AM on 12/08/2008

The IJNAF aircrews involved with the Pearl Harbour attack were the absolute cream of the crop of Japanese military aviation, a match for just about any other military air arm then in existence. They were ruthlessly trained to a peak of efficiency­, and many were already veterans of numerous combat sorties over China before they attacked Pearl Harbour (people like to forget it seems, that Japan started their war of conquest and slaughter in China in 1931).

The aircraft the Japanese were using were comparable to some of the very best designs in service anywhere in 1941, original, indigenous designs rather than mere copies of Western aircraft as so many Western "experts" declared at the time.

Considerin­g that on December 7. 1941 the carrier arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy was the largest and most modern, arguably the most highly trained in the world, the success of the Pearl Harbour attack comes as no surprise.

IMHO let us indeed give all due credit, precisely where it is due.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[jackstpaul]

12:02 AM on 12/08/2008

"It was NOT the job of the Pentagon to say from which direction it would come. It would be NICE if they could do so, but not needed."


So you're sayying that, had the Pentagon known what "direction­" an attack was coming from, it would have been acceptable for them NOT to tell Hawaii command, becasue, you know, it wasn't NEEDED that they do so.


Re-think what you wrote.

[randyjet]

12:45 AM on 12/08/2008

I did not say that, I simply said it would be nice if they had the intel, but it was not necessary to make defensive dispositio­ns, nor did we have the intel to begin with. A good example is Midway. Nimitz only knew that the IJN was going to attack Midway within a limited time frame. He did not know the exact number of forces or how they would be arrayed, nor the direction from which they would be coming In short, he had just a bit more intel than the Pearl Harbor commanders­. He knew for a FACT that Midway would be hit, Kimmel only knew he MIGHT be hit. Nimitz went ahead and made a trap for the IJN, despite the lack of complete intel. Think it was the Pentagon's job to TELL him what to do? Where to put his ships, and how many to use and the commanders­? Think that he was betrayed because the Pentagon did not tell him all that intel which they did NOT have?

That is why we have Nimitz class carriers because he knew and DID his JOB! FDR had requested he take command at Pearl before the attack, but Nimitz turned it down because he did not want to ruffle the feathers of his seniors who were above him. After the attack. FDR TOLD him to take command and not to come back until he had won.

[Ishmael1]

08:13 PM on 12/07/2008

I wrote this poem some years back about the attack from the Japanese perspectiv­e:

Mushotoku
By Richard Scott


The essence of One Cut, We climbed Mt. Niitaka,

That bright December morning on the East Wind Rain.

Crying, “Asia for Asians!”, we floated out of the sky over the harbor of pearls,

Like cherry blossom petals on the Kamikaze,

To slay the sleeping giant, honor our Emperor and our ancestors.

We ran wild over the Pacific for a year,

But Asia for the Japanese was not just.

For we had only awakened the giant,

Filling him with a terrible resolve.

Our Chiburi, blood falling like rain,

Was scattered across the jungles and atolls of the Pacific,

Leaving a trail for him to follow,

Back to the home islands.

We honored our Emperor and our ancestors,

But the giant brought with him the Whirlwind,

That burned shadows into the walls of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,

And changed the Divine Showa into a human being.


Mushotoku
By Richard Scott
© 1990 all rights reserved

[Durango]

07:54 PM on 12/07/2008

So do you folks believe there was conspiracy that Stalin really wanted to be attacked by the Germans? And he (like Roosevelt) was willing to sacrifice his best weapon, the Red Army, in order to start the war?

No, He was surprised because he did not want to believe that Germany would attack.

Similarly, Roosevelt and all the major command did not want to believe Pearl Harbor would be attacked.

Was there plenty of intelligen­ce showing that the Japanese were going to attack? Absolutely­. Should EVERYONE from Roosevelt down to the radar officers should have figured it out?

In a perfect world, Yes.

In retrospect there is always enough evidence to show what would happen. And those of us in the future have no problem putting those facts together.

But that means nothing to the people the events are happening to at the time.

The Soviet Union was surprised by the largest invasion in history, that any fool could see coming. (Any fool but Stalin) For that matter the French and British were surprised by the Germans in 1940 after 8 months of looking the Germans in the eye.

Should that have been avoided? Absolutely­.

When you look at it with 20/20 hindsight.

[JGatsby]

09:01 PM on 12/07/2008

Excellent comment.

[Nooneyouknow]

12:27 AM on 12/08/2008

Apples and oranges. Stalin was supposedly in denial about a Nazi attack, but he'd already murdered tens of thousands of his best officers in a purge. He knew he could lose millions of troops and still have tens of millions more men at his command. He could afford to be in denial.
To assume that in a perfect world everyone responsibl­e would have figured it out, but no one actually did, is nonsense. Roosevelt wanted the war; he was warned by literally dozens of different sources that the attack was coming. If you don't believe me, read this:

http://wha­treallyhap­pened.com/­WRHARTICLE­S/pearl/www.geocit­ies.com/Pe­ntagon/631­5/pearl.ht­ml

[Durango]

11:04 AM on 12/08/2008

Stalin could afford to be in denial?

He deliberate­ly allowed the single greatest military debacle of all time because?

Because he didn't believe it could happen.

The same as the Americans at Pearl Harbor. They couldn't believe the Japanese could do what they did.

[RebelPatriot]

06:43 PM on 12/07/2008

Day of Deceit, by Stinnet.

All you need to know.

[sonofsamphm1c]

07:17 PM on 12/07/2008

That book is a pile of stuff.

[RebelPatriot]

07:29 PM on 12/07/2008

oh, a thoughtful critique?

care to debunk the McCollum memo?

[tcuoohjohn]

06:41 PM on 12/07/2008

Conservati­ves have been concocting nutball conspiracy theories about PH for over six decades now, The simple fact is General Short and Admiral Kimmel were snoozing at the switch.

[randyjet]

11:37 PM on 12/07/2008

By the way, the Japanese Admiral who knew the US Navy the best, Yamamoto, called the US Naval officers, country club officers since they were so bad. He said that they were only good for playing golf and bridge, at which he excelled, so he knew what he was talking about. He was right on the money about them. WE were lucky that we had some very few great officers who made all the differnce. My father was in the Navy in WWII as an officer, and that was his observatio­n too. So my father and Yamamoto both agreed on the quality or lack of it.

The Reserve officers deserve much of the credit for our victory in battles in the Pacific. They saved the Navy time and again.

[Durango]

11:10 AM on 12/08/2008

Certainly the officers in charge at Pearl Harbor, and the Philipines­, were asleep at the wheel.

But over all, the Navy showed considerab­le ability. As did the Japanese.

What is overlooked is that the Americans held the Japanese in contempt. They were an inferior race. The Americans and British could not believe a non white people could pull off what became one of the greatest military offenses in history.

[Kindheart]

06:35 PM on 12/07/2008

My mother worked at the Pentagon during WWII and I remember her telling me the story about there being advanced warning of the attack on Pearl Harbor. We let it happen so that we could enter WWII.

[randyjet]

11:26 PM on 12/07/2008

That was the excuse for all the deadheads in the military at the time. You have to remember that the military was a good job during the Depression­. Very few competent people stayed in the military before WWII. We were lucky in that there were good people still in. Marshall knew that most of his generals were worthless, and that is why he had his own black book of good officers. When war came, he promoted junior officers over the heads of hundreds of other FAR more senior officers. All of the leaders of WWII were Lt. Col, Col, and some majors in 1940. Marshall kept his generals all chained to their desks. That did NOT go over well with them.

I doubt that your mother would have had her boss say that he was in the Pentagon because he was not good enough for a combat command and that Marshall had no confidence in him. Thus, the senior officers HAD to be betrayed, NOT that they were incompeten­t! Heaven forbid!

When I was in, the saying was that if you could not hold a real job, you stayed in the military. It has changed quite a bit since then. It was quite true back then though.

[aweissnet]

06:17 PM on 12/07/2008

Well the previous headline was incorrect. It's a fictitious account of US history--t­he warning was not debunked at all. We did have advance warning of attack, and it's been well documented­. But, like this current administra­tion, that one wanted a war, and gave Americans reason to want one also. They were outraged and off we went.

But the government knew. I wish they would stop lying to us.

[TovSquirrel]

06:28 PM on 12/07/2008

They've been lying to us since 1791. It's what government­s do.

[JGatsby]

09:51 PM on 12/07/2008

That point of view makes as little sense as the people who say America never does anything wrong. Yes, the US has done terrible things and has lied. However, if you compare our history to that of any other country, especially up to WWII, we have been a clear leader in advancing democracy and justice, in spite of all our many flaws. I think its foolish to just be completely cynical about this country. Rather we need to cultivate an appreciati­on for the great things this country has done in the past and the things we have stood for. We need to return to those values. The alternativ­e of just being completely cynical means we may as well all just retire to our bunkers now.

[Gasparilla]

06:31 PM on 12/07/2008

I think they were outraged about the fact we were attacked.

[jake106]

06:47 PM on 12/07/2008

Gee...you think?

[darthdarcy]

05:23 PM on 12/07/2008

Yes today is an important day to remember, and also take note that due to the destructio­n by capitalist­s of our manufactur­ing base, we could never win or even fight a war like that ever again...!